The One That Lived
by VampedVixen
Summary: Briar Rose awakens one hundred years after she pricks her finger and the curse takes effect. Things are not exactly as they used to be.


One hundred years passed in the blink of an eye, a century full of unbroken sleep and one broken promise. The prince never rescued Briar Rose from the tower where she laid waiting for him. When they were little, growing up together in their father's shared kingdoms, Prince James vowed that if ever the evil fairy's curse proved true, he would risk life and limb to awaken her with a kiss. Now, as she pulled at the vines that grew around her bed and herself, Briar Rose wondered what had happened to that vow, that promise. Where was her prince when she needed him?

It took some time to cut a path through the bramble, pulling vines apart and being careful not to step on any of the decaying walkway that led to the stairs. Inside the castle all was silent, save for her own breath and footsteps. It seemed that no one had awoken from the spell except for her, though she recalled from legends her parents told her that that was what was supposed to happen. Though, many things were supposed to happen and very few things actually did.

Nearing a guard who stood sleeping sentinel on the top of the staircase, Briar Rose lifted his helm to see if he was okay. The metal had long since rusted over, becoming brittle over time so that pieces broke away and fell apart at her touch. As she viewed the bones inside the metal casing, her balance was briefly lost and Briar Rose fell back with a shocked and saddened gasp, "Sir Henry."

He was dead. Never to awaken again. All her life, the guard had kept her safe and she in turn was the one who finally destroyed him. If only she hadn't gone up to that tower to find the spinning wheel, if only she hadn't been so stupid as to try to play with forbidden things.

It was clear then that the fairy who had changed the spell from death to only sleep made a grave mistake. For it was only one hundred years of sleep for herself, yet those inside the kingdom died at the hands of her curse. She was to blame for all of this, not her prince that didn't rescue her, not the fairy who had said the words to jinx her with this evil. If she had not been foolish in her dealings with the unknown and had stayed out of the parts of the castle that were off limits, everything would have gone on as normal, without sleep and without death.

The thorns torn at her dress as Briar Rose yanked her way through the rest of the weed-filled castle. She didn't pay any attention to the tattering of her favorite gown, the only thought was of escape. Inside the castle, everything she touched and everything she saw was dead, crumbling away in decay and destruction. She needed to get out, needed to breathe fresh air again.

Once she felt the sunlight for the first time in over a century, Briar Rose sat on the ground and bathed in it for a moment. Her hands dug into the fresh grown grass, eager to tether her to something substantial, something that was still alive. Tears fell from her eyes while more guilt than she had ever felt before threatened to stop her heart. If only, she thought, if only my heart would stop and I could die alongside my kingdom and my countrymen.

Although she was brave and foolhardy, Briar Rose could not bring herself to destroy her life. Even though her world was gone and she had no place else to run to, there was still the fact that she was the one that lived. The only one who had made it out of the curse alive. That must mean something, she told herself in order to push herself onward. There must be a reason why her heart still beat and her lungs still drew in breath.

Instead of thinking of her lost years or her lost family, Briar Rose made herself turn her attention to more immediate matters. Where would she find food? Where would she live? Who would provide for her now that she was alone? The many thoughts of survival pushed out everything else. As a stranger in a now foreign land, issues she had never thought about became all too clear. She was no better than a peasant now, with less money and far less food. Her stomach growled, begging for sustenance. She did her best to ignore the emptiness inside herself, telling herself she was selfish for needing such things. The others were dead and here she was thinking about her next meal and wondering whether it would be big enough to appease the terrible hunger that threatened to consume her.

At the end of the day, Briar Rose was kind enough to meet a nice farming family. They were good people, though their customs were strange and their talk slightly angered her. The French commoners had become a resentful people, angry at the new monarch that took power after her family's terrible fate. They spoke of Enlightenment, of Voltaire and some man named Rousseau and of overthrowing those in charge so that the lower classes could revolt and take over. It would have been dangerous talk had her family still been alive, though it mattered little to her now. Nothing did.

In bed at night, she starred at the ceiling, afraid to fall asleep again for fear that another century might pass before she opened her eyes again. Instead, she stayed up and thought of the prince who had failed to follow through on his promise, the one who had let her and her kingdom down. She would never know if Prince James had died trying to save her or if he simply didn't care enough to try. Perhaps they had never shared talks of love and perhaps he never made that vow to her. Maybe it was just a dream within a dream, a fairy tale with no happy ending.


End file.
